Hi Marilyn, 
Thanks for your engaging questions. Please understand that I have a huge
bias here. I have studied the health hazards of gluten-contining grains for
the last 14 years and that has a tendency to color one's perspective. That
said, I do have to admit that sprouted breads would probably contain less
phytate, and there are many valuable vitamins and minerals in grains.
Alernatively, there are also many valuable nutrients in meats, fruits, nuts,
and vegetables. It is the hazardous contents of grains that I think should
concern you or anyone else who chooses to eat them. 

Phytates, although significant, are only part of the grain problem.
According to Martin Kagnoff, *all* humans lack the necessary enzymes to
fully digest gluten. Specifically, we cannot break the multiple glutamine
sequences. That may be fine as long as we don't suffer a serious burn,
chemotherapy, radiation, a serious intestinal infection, one of several
viral infections, etc. etc. However, when one of these traumas occurs we
produce excessive amounts of zonulin which relaxes the epithelial junctions
that usually act as a protective barrier. This loss of protection allows
these partly digested gluten-derived proteins and peptides to leak into our
circulation, at which time the immune system would become sensitized to
gluten. When these same proteins and peptides are put in a petrie dish with
many (but not all) of a wide range of human tissues, the tissue cells are
damaged. 

Hence, gliadins are cytotoxic and under any of the many conditions that
cause a leaky gut, gliadins can be leaked into the bloodstream to damage any
susceptible human tissues they come in contact with. Gliadins are
particularly toxic to neurological cells. 

Further, waiting until you are diagnosed with gluten sensitivity or celiac
disease would be a little like beginning to practice birth control after
conception. Once your immune system is sensitized to gluten, you already
have a problem. If you are not gluten sensitive, why not stop it before it
starts? It is also worthwhile pointing out that about 95$ of American
celiacs go undiagnosed. The number of gluten sensitive Americans is at least
12 times the number of celiacs, and I suspect that an even even smaller
percentage of  gluten sensitive Americans are diagnosed. We are talking
about a minimum of about 40 million Americans. 

Also, the absolute claim you quoted about wheatgrass being gluten free is
not quite accurate. Gluten is a group of several families of storage
proteins. These proteins provide nutrients to facilitate germination and
growth of the plant. In theory, there should be an identifiable point at
which one stem is free from gluten, just it finishes the germination
process. However, even adjacent grasses do not germinate at absolutely
identical rates. There is no absolute cut-off point where all glutens are
absent from all stems in even a very small a batch of grass. The gluten
content is dramatically reduced but it is not completely absent. I know
several celiacs who tried wheatgrass and are fairly sensitive to gluten.
Each of them had a gluten reaction. 

If you are interested in a deeper understanding of the hazards of eating
grain-derived foods (sprouted or otherwise) I would suggest reading
_Dangerous Grains_. Of course I have a wee bias there too. I make a small
amount of money from every copy that sells. :-) 

 
Best Wishes, 
Ron Hoggan, Ed. D.
co-author Dangerous Grains ISBN: 978158333-129-3 www.dangerousgrains.com 
editor: Scott-Free Newsletter www.celiac.com

"Objectivity is the prerogative of objects."


 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paleolithic Eating Support List 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marilyn Harris
> Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 3:33 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Good article on eating
> 
> Hi Ron;
> 
> I understand what you are saying and I agree that grains may 
> be more injurious rather than a health benefit to people, but 
> after reading this book I began to wonder. Although they only 
> mention it as a "possible" (3rd after "convincing" and 
> "probable") protective factor and the book explains that 
> there may be other variables at play so it's hard to make a 
> strong recommendation.
> 
> I haven't been making any bread for about 2-3 years after my 
> bread-maker died and have taken to eating the sprouted manna 
> bread in the last year more for its fibre content.
> 
> But, what is your opinion of sprouted bread? As I understand 
> it has a greatly reduced phytate content, and and is much 
> higher in nutrients than non-sprouted.
> 
> http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/free-sprout-information/wheat.html
> 
> "The sprouting process starts a beneficial modification of 
> various nutritional elements. Research undertaken at the 
> University of Minnesota, USA, showed that sprouting increases 
> the nutrient density of food. At 3 days of sprouting, much of 
> the original carbohydrate is converted to natural sugars, 
> making it less mucus forming. During the 3 days of sprouting, 
> the vitamin E content can increase 300%, vitamin C increase 
> 600%, and the B vitamins have been found to increase from 20% 
> to 1200%, with B17, the 'anti-cancer vitamin' 100% more than 
> in unsprouted seed."
> 
> I don't know the guten content compared to regular bread 
> though. I think that there is some breakdown of gluten during 
> germination ("Note too, that gluten is not present in 
> wheatgrass because, after germination, gluten is broken down 
> into smaller building blocks, needed for growing the grass. 
> These smaller molecules are much easier for us to 
> assimilate."). Of course the longer it germinates the better, 
>  culminating in the growth of wheatgrass that has, "...been 
> found to have up to a 100 times more vitamin B17, than the 
> seed from which it came". Wheatgrass is undoubtedly a very 
> good food - every bear knows that.
> 
> Unless one is diagnosed gluten-intolerant, I wonder if 
> avoidance of foods such as manna bread may be unnecessarily 
> restricting valuable nutrients from one's intake?
> 
> Marilyn